Mobility will remain endemic because it brings choice as TBM highlights. I tried using public transport for a month during one of my high mileage periods. I would leave home on Monday and do a loop of customers and prospects coming home Thursday evening. In the car this was a simple thing. Using train/cab (no bus) it became a nightmare. 5am starts, no time in the evening to prep due to transport. Miss one train or suffer a cancellation (quite a few of them VIRGIN) and stuff the lot for the day. No cabs at a station to get to a hotel. My month was reduced to two and a half weeks.
There are several car sharing schemes running now with the model proving effective in cities however it is interesting to see the difference between the BEV and ICE programs.
The car rental and sharing schemes that use electric cars require one thing, an overprovisioning of the fleet to allow for charging time on them. This is going to have to be worked into the business model. Alongside provisioning of convenient charging locations and infrastructure which needs to be provisioned by the rental company if they are to be effective. Picking up a car with 90% empty petrol tank is annoying, picking one up with 10% charge is a waste of time and makes the flex useless. This plus the extra cost of the BEV vehicle makes the shared service a lot more expensive than the Citroen Ami as an example. But that burps the idea of small electric city cars! Another fine mess.
